Steven Rothman, M.D.

Dr. Steven Rothman is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Clinical Neuroscience in Pediatrics. He majored in chemistry at the University of Chicago and received his M.D. from the State University of New York Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse in 1973. After pediatric internship and residency at the University of Minnesota, he moved to Washington University in St. Louis where he completed a residency in child neurology and fellowship in neurobiology. He joined the faculty of Washington University in 1980. He became the Stein Professor of Developmental Neurobiology in 1992 and headed the Division of Pediatric Neurology from 1992-2004. He was also a professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at Washington University. Dr. Rothman returned to the University of Minnesota in the summer of 2007.

Dr. Rothman made some of the early observations that suggested a link between endogenous glutamate and a variety of acute and chronic human neurobiological diseases. He and his colleagues now have broad interests in the fundamental neurobiology and therapy of epilepsy. Their most recent epilepsy experiments have investigated a potential new modality of epilepsy therapy, rapid cooling utilizing small thermoelectric (Peltier) devices. They have shown that they can rapidly terminate acute neocortical seizures in vitro and in vivo if they activate a Peltier device in contact with the seizure focus.They have even developed an automated, closed loop seizure recognition system that can successfully activate the cooling device. They are  now trying to extend their initial work on animal seizures to human epilepsy. Related experiments are exploring other possible epilepsy therapies and more basic mechanisms of epilepsy.

Dr. Rothman's work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, from which he received a Jacob Javits Award (1989-1996). He has been a member of two NIH study sections and served on the editorial board of the Journal of Neuroscience. He is the author or co-author of over 80 scientific papers and invited reviews and listed in ISI Highly Cited, a data base of the most frequently cited authors of scientific publications.